Using nothing more that scraps of fabric, thread, paper and wire this self-taught Yorkshire artist crafts charmingly creepy fairytale creatures.

I see a lot of inspiration from Lewis Carroll illustrations in them.

In his hands, worn velvet curtains become an enormous moth, a vintage wedding dress and pearls are now a tea-serving spider, and scraps of faux fur a stuffed and twisted into bumble bees. Every remnant he finds has potential to be something more magical. Mister Finch works alone and makes everything himself by hand in a studio full of books, glass jars and naughty cats. When he’s not crafting these amazing soft sculpture delights, about 12 hours a day by the way, he can be found reading and watching old movies.

Mister Finch makes custom pieces upon request, if you’re so inclined. Since his Etsy shop is rarely stocked.

We started with a green foam wreath shape and an “M” cut from fiberboard. Both from the craft store.

With a glue gun I carefully glued sheet moss pieces to the wreath form. Got these at the craft store too.

After spraying the “M” with Design Master Holiday Red spray paint, we punched dots from self adhesive craft foam with a hole punch and just randomly covered it.

Trust me, Jamie was punching dots for days.

Poke in a couple of wired silk Monarch butterflies and you have a pretty cute wreath,

For the toadstools:

We started with a bag of foam ball halves, again from the craft store.

Then sprayed them, also, with Holiday Red Design Master spray paint. Design Master is made just for crafts like this…regular spray paint with eat right through the foam. Trust me.

With more hot glue we attached the toadstool tops to the sprayed white dowels.

…and again added foam dots punched from adhesive craft foam.

We made 2 sizes and simply stuck them in all the ferns to keep things looking a little “cartoon-y” and not too serious. It was a kids party after all.

For the gnome hats:

I disassembled a plain party hat from Party City and used it as a template to trace on a sheet of red felt.

After cutting out the felt hat shape, I gave them a good, heavy spritz of spray adhesive. The overspray is pretty messy, and you want to go as close to the edges as possible, so lay down a drop cloth to protect all the surfaces.

I gently rolled an assembled party hat over the red felt piece pushing down firmly as I went.

Then used a pair of scissors to trim the excess felt……or possibly hat, whichever needed trimming more.

Like this:

It has been summer camp all year long for Tereasa Surratt, her husband David Hernandez, and daughter Charlie since purchasing David’s childhood summer camp in 2007.

Camp Wandawega

Located 90 miles from Chicago in Elkhorn, Wisconsin the camp has a pretty colorful past; a prohibition-era “speakeasy”, a brothel, and most recently a Latvian church retreat. In the 1970’s, David spent many happy summers here with his family canoeing, crafting, fishing, star-gazing, and swinging on a tire swing over the clear lake. By the 90’s the forgotten camp had fallen into complete disrepair. “It had ceilings falling in, and it was full of raccoons,” Tereasa says. After hearing David’s stories about 4 generations of his family spending every summer at Wandawega, she finally gave in to the idea of returning the place to its former glory. The couple knew that if they didn’t act everything would be bulldozed to make room for more “cookie-cutter” lake houses.

The pair aren’t strangers to the creative world, both are creative directors for Ogilvy. Tereasa is also a stylist and author. David is an avid preservationist who also serves on the board for the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust. Confessed flea market junkies, easy to see this in the decor/collections, the couple also rescues unwanted buildings, cars, trucks and trailers. The old Pendleton blankets, sports equipment, children’s books, board games, quilts, and Fiesta Ware they have amassed fill the cabins with vintage personality.

Word that the couple loves to save pieces of history spread fast between their friends and even locals in the Wandawega area. The campground is now speckled with refurbished bunk houses, tents, campers, teepees…and any other buildings they have managed to salvage and move to the lakefront.

I’ve been inspired by this camp for years without even know it. Last year I posted about the hanging antler chandelier in the camp tree house and the paint by number wall mural that Tereasa did on her daughter’s bedroom walls. Never imagined that both of these great spaces were in the same location.

Wanna see more of this place? You know, without actually flying to Wisconsin. Check out Tereasa’s book Found, Free & Flea.

This book is just filled with even more pictures of the camp and Tereasa’s styling.

Plenty of examples of living your life like it’s summer camp all year long.

……. so, after a little internal debate (yes, I’m pretty cheap) I brought him home with me.

He’s from a kit.

1975-ish, I Googled him and found an expired Ebay listing. That Faux Bois background should have been a clue to the 1970’s.

These kinds of craft was pretty popular then, but I’ve never seen an Indian before. W-to the-OW

Just look at the detail.

I would imagine that some woman spent uncounted hours working on him. Probably while watching McMillan and Wife on the television that doubled as a piece of furniture.

On the backside you can see all the knotting that went into him.

He needs to be restretched.

Which shouldn’t be much of a problem because he’s held together with loose staples and thumbtacks.

I popped the thumb tacks out and pulled the guy a little tighter…

Then I used some scrap cedar in the garage to make a quick frame for him. Basicly I made 2 frames with the brad gun, same outside width – one slightly smaller, and glued them together with wood glue. I filled in the holes with natural colored putty, and gave the whole thing a light sanding.

I used some flat straps at an angle to hold him in the frame.

Someday, I may have him framed by a professional, but I like the simplicity of the free cedar frame for now.

He works just perfectly in the guest room.

Still need to frame that big cow head……

If there were a fire in the Cavender house, that Indian would be the first thing that I would save.